Recently, I decided to try Chef’s Plate, a service that delivers groceries and recipes. Essentially, these are dinners that you make yourself. I find I get a bit bored with the things we usually make, even though Mr. Math and I both cook. We end up going out for lunch or dinner once a week, and often are underwhelmed. This seemed like a good alternative. At about $66 CA per week for three dinners, it’s pretty comparable to going out once a week for a meal with wine.

There are a number of these services, but I chose Chef’s Plate because they’re located in the GTA, because they had more food options than other services, and because their meals looked more like dinners to me.

This is our first week. We joined for three dinners for two per week, and the box of ingredients arrived yesterday – in a blizzard! It came by FedEx. I was a bit concerned about the raw meat, but the box was insulated and there were freezer packs around the meat. They were still frozen, even though the box shipped Monday, and actually took all day to thaw in the sink after the box arrived.

Last night was our first dinner. It was Spicy Pork Sausage Ragu.

I was worried about the portion size. Mr. Math has a fast metabolism (even though he’s very lean) and he was out shovelling snow yesterday. I also thought this looked like a meal that needed a salad. We tend to eat a lot of vegetables so I have no issues augmenting the meal with a salad. I had a fennel in the fridge and an orange – this is the easiest salad in the world. You shred the fennel – a mandoline is great but I was too lazy to clean one, so just chopped the fennel fine – and put the cut orange on top. The juice is the dressing. It works equally well with a grapefruit, although Mr. Math is less of a fan of the grapefruit option.

The sauce was easy to make and the fresh pasta cooked very quickly. The spice in the sauce was perfectly complemented by the salad – a little zing and a little cool! – so I made a good choice. It was a wonderful meal!

I split the portions closer to 60/40 which worked out well for us.

Here’s Mr. Math’s dinner. He ate every bite.

Afterward, he said to me that it was as if we had gone out to eat, but hadn’t. I knew exactly what he meant. The ragu was something I wouldn’t have made and the spice was different from what we usually do. It was delicious. In the novelty of a new taste sensation, it was like eating out – or eating someone else’s cooking. It was eating in, though, because I prepped it in our kitchen and we sat by the fire at home while we ate. I’m very pleased and have ordered for next week – even though we have two more dinners waiting to be prepared.

If you’d like to give Chef’s Plate a try, use this referral link to get three plates free in your first week. If it doesn’t work, enter #3platesFromDebC at checkout for the discount.